What is Wai 262From an interview with Maui Solomon conducted by inmotion magazine

Maui Solomon

The Wai 262 claim is a claim by six tribes throughout New Zealand (Ngati Kuri, Ngati Wai, Te Rarawa, Ngati Kahungunu, Ngati Porou and Ngati Koata) to the Waitangi Tribunal for recognition and protection of the cultural and intellectual heritage rights in relation to indigenous flora and fauna and their Matauranga, or traditional knowledge, customs and practices related to that flora and fauna.

It includes all native species in New Zealand. It includes Maori arts and designs. It includes traditional knowledge, plants, medicines. It raises concerns in opposition to genetic tampering with the DNA structures of native flora and fauna in the sense that Maori have a particular whakapapa or genealogical relationship with the native flora and fauna that is not being respected or understood by science, and scientists, and the experiments that are taking place.

The claimants look upon it as tampering with their whakapapa or their genealogical connections. So for example, Tane Mahuta is the god of the forest but he's also an ancestor of the claimants. He appears in their whakapapa. As does Tangaroa, the god of the sea. As does Tawhiri-matea the god of winds. They are the children of Papatuanku( the Earth mother) and Ranginui ( the Sky Father). Tane made the first human and as such they are all elders in the family tree, as it were. Tampering with the native korimiko, totara, kauri, the native trees within Tane-Mahuta's domain, is like tampering with the genes of one's own family member. Why should a scientist muddle around with the genes of a totara tree that Tane-mahuta created and try to make a better tree?. Or, before he does, there are certain considerations, ethical, moral, cultural and spiritual, that need to be taken into account.

The claim also raises issues to do with international instruments like the draft Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous people, the Convention on Biological Diversity, and ILO Convention 169.